John Michael Osbourne died in England a few days ago. According to a family statement as reported by Fox News, Osbourne died with his family by his side, “surrounded by love.” The world knew Osbourne not as John Michael but as Ozzy. For decades Ozzy Osbourne was the frontman of a heavy metal group called Black Sabbath. Their stage shtick was Satanism. Osbourne was notorious for his “Prince of Darkness” routine — he preferred the nickname — and fans came to expect a mockery of spiritual warfare when Black Sabbath came to town.

Osbourne, for all his Satanic antics, professed to be a Christian. He was other things, too. A drug addict. A near-uxoricide. Good at biting the heads off of small animals. The killer of 17 family cats. A television star famous for pottering around the house muttering expletives in front of his children. A sad wreck of a man who burned his brain partying with other rock stars in the 1970s.

Perhaps the Satanism business was all just an act. All in good fun. A little black eyeliner and some devilish bloodletting to get a crowd into the music.

Or perhaps Osbourne is emblematic of the bankruptcy of the conservative movement in America. Fox News, the channel preferred by those who claim to cherish family values, covered Osbourne’s passing as it would that of a beloved cultural icon. Come to think of it, Fox also features a former Olympian in drag from time to time, and for a while a certain auto executive with umpteen kids by as many women was on Fox from sunup to sundown, talking about making the American government more efficient. More efficient at what? Bombing Iran? To wit, 20 years or so ago Fox was the go-to channel for updates on what turned out to be completely pointless killing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fox also likes to invite on a South Carolina senator who is notorious for suggesting that Gaza be nuked.

It’s been a hard awakening. Conservatives, at least many who claim to be such, have embraced some bad things. I long wished it wasn’t true, because I was once “conservative,” too. But one day I wake up and Ozzy Osbourne is getting the warm-and-fuzzy treatment on Fox, and I look back and reflect that much of what I’ve been calling “conservatism” has been a sick joke for a long time now.

Ozzy Osbourne, family man. Black Sabbath as his day job — well, night job — and devoted dad and husband in his off time. Even Satanists have family values, we are to believe.

Christ can save anybody, that is beyond doubt. But if conservatives in America are still Christian, then they have a very sick way of showing it.